Honolulu, Hawaii –During an hour-long
informational hearing on medical marijuana in the House, experts testified
on its medicinal value and the issues related to establishing distribution
centers, as the House contemplates legalizing a system of dispensaries for medical
cannabis.

The speakers
provided insight on a wide range of related issues, including the medical
benefits of cannabis, the legal context on both state and federal levels, security
and public safety, administrative rulemaking, and the experiences of other
states and cities, as they dealt with the use and distribution of medical
marijuana. Although medical cannabis is allowed in Hawaii for qualified
patients certified by their physician, there are no legal outlets to purchase medical
cannabis for patients. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have
passed medical cannabis laws legalizing the use and production of medical cannabis
for qualifying patients, according toThe Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), a national
organization promoting drug policies.

Referring
to House Speaker Joseph Souki’s call to legalize dispensaries and correct the
gap in the current law during his opening day remarks, Representative Della Au
Belatti (Makiki, Tantalus, Papakolea, McCully, Pawaa, Manoa), Chair of the
House Committee on Health, called for a “steady, measured and reasonable
approach” to discussions on legalizing local dispensaries for medical
marijuana.

“Last
year under Act 177, we took the first step to lay the groundwork to transition
management and oversight of medical marijuana from the Department of Public Safety
to the Department of Health,” noted Belatti. “This will allow us to regulate
its use and distribution primarily from a health perspective, as it should be.” Officials from both Public Safety and Health
were on hand to update House members on the progress of that transition. The
deadline for the transition to the Health Department is January 1, 2015.

“The medical sophistication of the active compounds in
cannabis is extraordinary,” said James Anthony, an Oakland-based attorney who
specializes in medical cannabis dispensary land use law. “The “high” we normally attribute to
recreational users of marijuana that most of us are familiar with is just one
of its affects. But it’s not a just single drug with a single outcome.”

Anthony pointed to the advances in research and development in
medical cannabis and explained how researchers can now identify and isolate
many of its active compounds to create drug variations specifically targeted to
treat the severe and otherwise unmanageable effects of a wide range of
diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, HIV and arthritis.

In response to questions of increasing crime related to the
legalized distribution of medical cannabis, Mayor Robert Jacob of Sebastapol,
California, referred to statistics that show the opposite is true. “When you
take medical cannabis out of the black market, provide clear regulations and
laws guiding its use, and a secure and reliable distribution system, the crime
rate associated with it actually drops,” he said.

When asked his view on which level of
government, city or state, is best equipped to oversee medical cannabis
dispensaries, Jacob pointed to his experience in Sebastapol, a small city of
less than 10,000 and nearby Santa Rosa, with a population of a little over
170,000.

He said city or county oversight of dispensaries was a double
edged sword. On one hand, city or county regulators and
lawmakers have a smaller and less complex population and are closer to the actual
process when it is handled by smaller intra-state municipalities, according to
Jacob. On the other hand, states end up
with a “patchwork” of sometimes conflicting regulations and processes through
which dispensary operators and patients must negotiate.

Karl
Malivuk, a registered medical marijuana patient who recently moved from New
Mexico—where there are 23 medical marijuana dispensaries—to Hawaii, said he did
not appreciate the accessibility and level of professional caregivers,
physicians and providers who specialize in medical marijuana in New Mexico when
he moved to the Islands. He said he could not put into words the “loss of
support” he felt after relocating to Hawaii.

HB
1587—which passed first reading and is currently being reviewed by the
House committees on health, judiciary and finance—creates a system of
registered medical marijuana dispensaries and dispensary agents in the state of
Hawaii.

HCR
48 and HR
29—which have been referred to the House committees on health, judiciary
and legislative management—requests the convening of a task force to develop
recommendations for the establishment of a regulated statewide dispensary
system for medical marijuana.